Share my "new" experience with BenQ SL705S Projector

[taurian]

Hello all,

Just bought a BenQ SL705S projector. Just want to share with all of you and maybe get some comments. Bought it at $3299. Specs include:

- DLP

- Contrast ratio 600 : 1

- 1100 Ansi lumens

- SVGA

- HDTV compat.

More specs can be found here http://www.benq.com.sg/products/proj/sl705_2.htm

Anyway, 30 minutes into previewing LOTR, Hollow Man and "Zhen Qing" on channel U, my wife is already hooked! ;D When I switched back to my 29" CTV, my wife commented that it's addictive and our TV looks so small now.

Quality wise, I feel its very good. Can't comment on colours yet but at least the shadows got good details, not too dark. However, 1100 lumens is not enough for day-time viewing. I've got white colour roller blinds and I projected the image beside my floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room (time to get black-out roller blinds!). And I used my white-colour wall as a screen. Seems good enough. Night-time viewing is fantastic. Just like cinema, except can't play the sounds too loud.

The connectors for the inputs seems strange at first. I've only got a 15 pin input which is labeled "PC/HDTV" and one of my cables has got a 15 pin connector on one end and 3 RGB RCA plugs on the other. The 15 pins connector only has 6 pins available. The rest of the inputs are audio, S-Video and the normal video input.

I tried connecting my DVDP's composite to the 15 pins connector with cheapo A/V extension cables and they work! But my projected image keeps jumping! I'm hoping that better cables will keep the image steady but I suspect the extension adapters I used may be the problem also. Anyway, I'll check with Robert to see if he can come up with a custom cable with the 15-pins connector on one end.

All right, that's all for now, will share more as my set-up is more complete with proper cabling and mounting.

[rtankm]

Congratulations! Enjoy your cinema experience. ;D

[Jag]

Congrats. I was very interested onm the BENQ 705X or the LG's equivalent. But a certain rude salesman selling BenQ at the PC show in June made me sway away from BenQ.

 

Anyway, do let us know of your experience and the PQ of your beauty. If u need any help with cables, I can help too.

 

Cheers

[Guest duckling]

Lamp life only 1500 hrs?? :o

[Jag]

yah... thats the worst thing about this pj...... not economical...... perhaps thats why I went with panny with its 5000hrs lamp life. Esp since I watch TV on my pj.

 

But I read in AVS that BenQ is giving away a second lamp for free. Too bad it doesn't apply here.....

[taurian]

Lamp life only 1500 hrs?? :o

Yah, it's very short I know. But on scouting around, I found that most projectors of 1000 lumens and above have about 2000 hrs or so. And 1500hrs is the recommended lifespan before the bulb becomes dim. Maybe I can prolong it? Don't know yet but I'm thinking of using it for 5hrs per day and see if it can last me 10 months!

[taurian]

Oh, does anyone know about the funny connector cable I mentioned? The one with 15 pins VGA connector on one end and RGB RCA plugs on the other? Can this be custom-made?

[Jag]

Such cables are very common for projectors. Collectively they are called VGA break-out cables.

 

Many types of such cables, commonly :

1) D-15 to RGB breakout

2) D-15 to RGBHV breakout

3) D-15 proprietry breakout cables (must be custom made)

 

1 & 2 is very common. 3 is for those manufacturers that have non-standard signals passing thru the D-15 VGA connector. All these can be made, needs lots of techincal skill and proper knowledge on the pin assignment.

[Ender1624705735]

The native resolution of the SL705S at 800X600 is not ideal for anamorphic DVDs. Coz it can't do 480p natively, only 800X450, so it got to lose about 30 horizontal lines for anamorphic DVDs.

 

Still think for DVDs, the AE100 with a 856X480 panel would be more ideal at lower price, coz it does without any up or down scaling for 480p.

[Jag]

Actually, we did have a dicussion about this pj quite some time ago.....on the same pj in its LG form, LG-21 something....

 

Collectively, I remember the bad point is its low lamp life, runs extremely hot and there are better buys out there expecially for that anamorphic widescreen ability.

 

I do feel it is a good pj, but panny ae100 was much more superior. Besides, that pj was showing rainbows more often than it should. Very distracting and headache-making drawback for me.

 

 

[Guest joamonte]

u guy dont like that lah...tis guy just brought his projector... :-\

 

taurian....nothing in tis world is prefect,so no doubt tis projector has some weakness compare to AE-100..

 

but not to forget it dont have the screendoor effect of LCD projector and its contrast ratio is better then the AE-100....

 

and lastly ~~when watch SCV or PAL soure it should have better resolution then the AE-100...! ;)

[Ender1624705735]

u guy dont like that lah...tis guy just brought his projector... :-\

 

taurian....nothing in tis world is prefect,so no doubt tis projector has some weakness compare to AE-100..

 

but not to forget it dont have the screendoor effect of LCD projector and its contrast ratio is better then the AE-100....

 

and lastly ~~when watch SCV or PAL soure it should have better resolution then the AE-100...! ;)

 

Agree to certain point. Depends what you want.

If you want to watched full screen broadcast TV or Pan&Scan DVDs, then with its 800X600 resolution , it has more than enough lines to handle 525p for PAL.

 

If you just want to watch anamorphic DVDs, then the AE100 to be just nice without hurting the pocket too much.

 

[Jag]

Yep, on 4:3 material, the 705s is good. On wide-screen, the 705s will suffer in terms of PQ.

 

I play dvds 60%, SCV 40%, so ae100 is good for me.

 

Anyway, do have fun with ur pj. Just remember, no pj is perfect.... each has its own unique flaws.

 

 

[taurian]

The native resolution of the SL705S at 800X600 is not ideal for anamorphic DVDs. Coz it can't do 480p natively, only 800X450, so it got to lose about 30 horizontal lines for anamorphic DVDs.

 

Still think for DVDs, the AE100 with a 856X480 panel would be more ideal at lower price, coz it does without any up or down scaling for 480p.

Ender, thanks for pointing this out. Actually, I just got "educated" on anamorphic DVDs last night :D So, before that, didn't consider much about the 16x9 screen ratio of the panny. But the main drawback of the panny for me is the 700 lumens. I feel that it's not bright enough for me to watch in day-light. Sigh, even 1100 lumens is not bright enough.

Anyway, I like widescreen but my wife likes TV programs and after trying it out last night, I think we'll be watching lots of TV programs using the BenQ.

[taurian]

u guy dont like that lah...tis guy just brought his projector... :-\

 

taurian....nothing in tis world is prefect,so no doubt tis projector has some weakness compare to AE-100..

 

but not to forget it dont have the screendoor effect of LCD projector and its contrast ratio is better then the AE-100....

 

and lastly ~~when watch SCV or PAL soure it should have better resolution then the AE-100...! ;)

 

joamonte, thanks for your sensitivity ;)

This is not the first time I'm spending so much money, so by now, I've gotten use to the idea of living with your decisions. Anyway, I made an informed purchase, not just based on blind faith so I think I'm pretty much aware of the BenQ's shortcomings. In fact, all these comments reassured me that I did my homework! ;)

[Jag]

Hmm one note there taurian,..... u shouldn't watch ur pj in a bright room. Even with 1100 lums, and still wishing for more lum, then its time to re-think about lowering the light in ur viewing room.

 

Anyway, any pj lower than 3000lum will not be bright enough for daylight use.... even the best. I suggest controlling the light in ur viewing room.

 

Coz asking for more brightness is one common mistake of pj newbies. If u watch ur pj in day with poor light control, u'll wish for more lums. When night falls, ur bright pj will be too bright which is enough to give u unhealthy eye strain.

 

Do sufficient light control to give good image at daytime. This will give u pq good regardless for day and night without overly bright image.

 

Anyway, enjoy ur pj. ;D When the next pj upgrade cycle comes, u'll realise what to avoid......

[taurian]

Well, that's why I'm thinking of installing black-out roller blinds! But I'm afraid the roller blinds will not be able to cut out enough light.

Anyway, please comment on the following idea:

- I'm now using my white-wall for night-time viewing which is sufficicent for me.

- Most ppl suggest getting a matte white screen for projection

- what do you say if I get a high-gain screen for day-time viewing (with my black-out roller blinds of course), and just use the wall at night?

[Jag]

I would avoid high-gain screens like the plague. They tend to produce hotspots. Somehow, they don't give a good picture in contrast to MW. They are easier to handle and very compatible to all sorts of projection angles and situations.

 

Roller blinds? Y not just get black-out curtains?

[htfreak]

Well for those who are ready to plonk about US$6K worth of moolas on the latest and greatest LCD projector. Get ready for the new Sanyo PLV-70. Seems to be building up a lot of ethusiasm over at AVSforum. Specs include 2200 Ansi Lumens and 900:1 contrast ratio. It features three 1366 x 768 16:9 LCD panels with micolens array. Resolutions suppported includes 480i/480P/575i/575P/720P/1035i/1080i. For those interested to find out more, you can check out the following review at :-

 

http://www.projectorcentral.com/sanyo_plv_70.htm

[taurian]

I would avoid high-gain screens like the plague. They tend to produce hotspots. Somehow, they don't give a good picture in contrast to MW. They are easier to handle and very compatible to all sorts of projection angles and situations.

 

Roller blinds? Y not just get black-out curtains?

 

Hehe, curtains don't fit into my house's concept ;D

[Guest Digital]

Hi Taurian & other Benq users,

 

Can u do this check on your projector? Project a black image or press "BLANK" mode on remote, then look up for

a small cloudy white spots at somewhere near lower left hand side of the screen. FYI, this is only noticeable with

dark/black background image, if you still can't locate then u may want to try to project the image at less than

0.5m distance from the screen. It's much easier to locate the spot this way.

 

Good luck to you if you don't find any problem on your unit.

 

Thx

[Ender1624705735]

Hi Taurian & other Benq users,

 

Can u do this check on your projector? Project a black image or press "BLANK" mode on remote, then look up for

a small cloudy white spots at somewhere near lower left hand side of the screen. FYI, this is only noticeable with

dark/black background image, if you still can't locate then u may want to try to project the image at less than

0.5m distance from the screen. It's much easier to locate the spot this way.

 

Good luck to you if you don't find any problem on your unit.

 

Thx

 

Sounds like a dirt kenna trapped in your PJ. This can happen on any Projector. I had it on my panny, only that it's appear to be greenish blob on the lower right. I've tried cleaning with compressed air but it's still there. I'm just too lazy to make a trip to the panny service centre for them to clean it up.

[taurian]

Hi Taurian & other Benq users,

 

Can u do this check on your projector? Project a black image or press "BLANK" mode on remote, then look up for

a small cloudy white spots at somewhere near lower left hand side of the screen. FYI, this is only noticeable with

dark/black background image, if you still can't locate then u may want to try to project the image at less than

0.5m distance from the screen. It's much easier to locate the spot this way.

 

Good luck to you if you don't find any problem on your unit.

 

Thx

 

No such problem ;)